A wire harness routed in a vehicle is configured by a cluster of numerous electric wires. A proportion of shielded wires in the electric wires configuring the wire harness has increased accompanying a sharp increase in electrically controlled components being mounted in vehicles. The shielded wires must have a grounded metal shielding layer and, when the shielded wires increase in number, shielding-added splices that connect the shielding layer to a drain wire increase in number. A wire harness connected to a large electronic control unit includes numerous shielded wires, and thus the splices branching off from the wire harness are also numerous and are likely to cluster at a terminal portion of the wire harness.
Moreover, in a case where circuits of a plurality of electric wires other than the splices for additional shielding are branched off and connected, when a number of connected electric wires becomes comparatively great, an insulating layer on a terminus of the electric wires may be stripped to expose a terminus of a strand, then the exposed strands may be overlapped with one another and the terminuses collectively welded to form a splice. Often, this collective terminus splice is accommodated in a cap made of an insulating resin.
In addition, a splice formed by the electric wires of the wire harness routed in an area exposed to water in an engine compartment or the like in an automobile must be waterproofed. Thus, in the shielding-added splice of the shielded wire, in many cases a portion connected to the electric wires is filled with a waterproofing agent such as a silicone resin and is then wrapped by a waterproofing sheet. Alternatively, in a case where the collective terminus splice is accommodated in the cap, the cap is filled with a dual-liquid waterproofing agent or the like, then the collective terminus splice is filled by a waterproofing agent.
In the above way, in a case where a number of splices for additional shielding increases in the wire harness due to an increase in a number of shielded wires connected to the electronic control unit, for example, and where the splices are waterproofed, each splice increases in size. Thus, ensuring a housing area capable of accommodating the splices in a way that ensures reliable insulation is not easy due to the increase in number and size of the splices.
Meanwhile, in a space where a restricted path for the wire harness and prevention of interference with other components are necessary, the wire harness passes through an interior of a molded resin protector. In a case where numerous splices branch from the wire harness, the splices are preferably accommodated in the interior of the protector.
Conventionally, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H08-205360, the present applicants provide a protector 100 capable of accommodating splices, as shown in FIGS. 8(A), (B), and (C). Only a branch line 111 having a spliced portion 120 passes through the protector 100, the branch line 111 branching from a trunk line 110 of a wire harness. A spliced portion holder 103 is aligned in an entire width direction in a center portion of a wire pathway 101 within the protector 100. The spliced portion 120 of each branch line is passed through the respective spliced portion holder 103 and separately accommodated.